“Why Ferraris have lost their beauty” could be the topic for an entire thesis on Italian car design and automobile history, but as it happens, Gavin Green writing in Car, has put together a simple but effective piece on the new Ferrari style.

Green seems to be a real fan of Ferrari, and someone who knows them well, so we can assume he hasn’t written the piece to increase readership. Basically he says that while modern Ferrari models have maintained, and even developed if that’s possible, the pure driving style, the beauty has been lost along the way.

But as the capability has blossomed, the beauty has been besmirched. Ferraris aren’t gorgeous any more. The California has a fat arse. The 612 is fussy and ill-proportioned. The Enzo is more bug than bird. Even the F430 lacks the visual grace and profile poetry of the old F355, the last lovely Ferrari.

Apparently the less-than-perfect looks thing comes down to design essentials in aerodynamics and keeping a Ferrari on the road at high speeds. Just what speeds you can reach these days with your Ferrari (in third gear perhaps) is questionable but Green says:

Ferrari road cars are becoming more like its F1 cars, designed by scientists not artists, styled in the wind tunnel not in the studio. Engineers of course celebrate such thinking; aesthetes mourn it.

If purchasing and driving a Ferrari is all about the “wow” factor, given the superior technology of these vehicles, the evolving design is unlikely to dampen demand. The Ferrari California was sold out before you could even get your hands on the price, so the Italians should know they’re still on a winning formula.

As Green says: “I want to say ‘wow’ when I drive a Ferrari. And be grasping for superlatives, not the designer’s neck, when I first see one.” Your thoughts?

Source | CAR

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